The main issue with my real life fashion is that my mother still picks out my clothing. This is entirely due to me not having the money to go out and purchase my own clothes, and needing to watch my little sister when she goes out shopping. So she'll occasionally bring home some clothes for me to wear, and it's never anything special. It's all safe stuff, like jeans and shirts. I haven't had the experience of picking out clothing for me to wear. The closest I've come to that is going shopping with a friend, and I mostly just talked while she looked through the store. Chances are I'd just pick out something safe, and hope that nobody tells me that I look ridiculous.

My avatar, on the other hand, is completely within my control. I can go browsing through all the different options, and it's pretty liberating being able to actually present myself in some way to people. It's hardly ever what I'd ever dare to wear in real life, but it's still something I put together all on my own. I don't get that very often in life. So I'll dress up my avatar as uniquely as I can, and hope that nobody tells me that I look ridiculous.

I've found it fascinating how my tastes on Gaia have directly influenced how I dress IRL. My avatar is a way to experiment with styles I like before investing my own self in them. I started actively playing Gaia around 07, when I wore jeans and tees fairly exclusively, much like everyone in my school. Fast forward a few years and I nearly always wear skirts. I was super jealous of my one friend who wore flouncy skirts everyday, so my avatar began wearing them too. It became a part of her - the last time I remember dressing her in pants was when we had the summer water fight.

My avatar is always fairly matchy-matchy and (I like to think) well balanced in both color and form. Since I started doing this online, the same has occurred off. I have two large drawers dedicated to my socks and tights, just so I can ensure they match my top. A few years ago on Gaia, I kept my outfits simple - no more than seven items usually - and now the same is true IRL. It's more coordination than I used to do, but my avatar now sports over a dozen items. I imagine in a few years this will be true of me too.

I appear to only have played the bonus game... Anyone for analyzing my avatar? We'll see if that's what I want to convey or not lol

I think the biggest difference between my RL me and my avatar is that I have way more guts on gaia, and that my gaia avatar has the perfect body. wink
I'm also quite practical IRL, so I'm not going to wear heels if I'm going to have to walk all day.

My indoors look;

My outdoors look:

What? It's been cold the past few weeks! rofl
So yeah, I wear hiking shoes and an unflattering skicoat with fingerless gloves and a knitted hat outside.

The difference between my IRL self and the online self is mainly due to the fact I won't wear such frilly things in real life. I tend to lean more towards jeans, rock shirts, punk collars and that sort of thing.

Plus the fact that the online self is more like my original character rather than my own self.

Well, my Gaia avi-style is always very detailed , and I play close attention to character and theme.I love weird colors (shades that are not often seen or used ) or bright , neony , eye-burning ones .And I switch daily between Sci-Fi and tribal inspired .I often do and enjoy clutter . And I loooooove textures . I can only feel at ease with an avi if I can say : 'oh , this looks like velvet ..those are crystal beads and this is worn-out leather .'

As for RL , I wear whatever I please , even if my father doesn 't like it. Which mainly involves red or khaki combat boots painted with white roses (did that myself with Tipp -Ex ) , short dresses of black lace ,accessorized with holes , silver beads and crosses by , again, yours truly . Or tartan skirts , yet again customized by myself . Shirts my mother used to wear onstage for theatre representations (the kind lolitas would drool over) , jabots made of shiny silvery material .Lots of collars , necklaces ...No bracelets nor rings , though, because it ' s impractical when you play the piano. And I haven 't got my ears pierced yet ...so I guess that ' s a good example of my wardrobe .Thinking about it again, I can say that my outfits are always , like my avatars ,well- planned , tweaked and ...I nearly always change something on any type of new clothes I buy . Because I have already imagined what I wanted , so it must fit the image in my head otherwise I will feel frustrated all day .

So , what can you say about that , Mister Gnar-Gnar ?
Because , truth to be told, I have no idea.

I'd like to think my avi is more of a fantasy version of myself (mind you I did have green hair when I was a teenager, but sadly I just can't swing that anymore) Although I can't float, smoke openly in public or appear somewhat demonic with certain accessories for the most part the clothing items I choose run towards items I would wear on a day to day basis. (Jeans, hoodies, t-shirts etc...). I'm pretty laid back and would rather be comfortable than follow the latest fashion trend.

As far as others impressions of me both on and off the web, I have no idea. I'm sure I'm not really impressive one way or the other. I do however try not to look like a sketchy bum when out in the world.

Example of the real world me.
(this base does not do my boobs justice)

>>>: I did read that wall o' text but already I have forgotten about half of it xD
Yes, my avatar does reflect my interests, but I wouldn't say it reflects my personality.
...
Can't think of anything more to say...
Oh yeah, there is no way to tektek myself truthfully. These threads pop up in the AT
every now and then and I do it because it's fun, but I always end up making those
avatars look like what I could wear and what I would look good in. There's not enough
old, scruffy and baggy looking clothes on gaia to match my real self xD

Imagine those clothes a little more ragged and you pretty much get what I look like IRL. (Hair is supposed to be a dark blonde)

At first I thought I just wanted to look more 'metal' and additionally a bit trashy. I tried to define myself through the music I was listening to and my tastes in movies, arts, etc.. I wanted to express that I'm into the hard stuff, gory trash-horror movies and ear-ripping loud metal. I started smoking, just to let people know I'm in a way self-destructive and I just don't care at all. I even had my hair dyed black for more than a year, because I felt like I wanted to be that 'inner darkness'-guy.

Naturally that's not the whole truth. IRL I still have very bad facial skin, my build is rather meager and I have a slight limp. Throughout my whole life I've been bullied a lot and sometimes I still hear people talking behind my back, some even laugh out loud. This whole time I've been dressing myself that way to pretend that I don't care what other people think, to show people that they don't want to mess with me because I'm all about extreme stuff and to feel like I belong somewhere (still I don't wanted to be just another metal-head, so I added the red scarf to express individuality). In a nutshell I wanted to protect myself and feel secure.

Even my avatar reflected that in a way. I always preferred monstrous- or at least inhuman-looking outfits. I wanted to creep people out and show off how creative I thought I was, using 'ugly' items and make them work somehow. There are still so many avatars that look all frilly and fancy, 'sexy', strong and demonic or like some anime character. I wanted to be one of those few people who have a ghastly style, never trying to look pretty but still great as a disgusting monstrosity.

My current avi is mostly the product of my newfound sexuality. Even though I still feel very comfortable being a man, I must admit I'd enjoy looking more effeminate. I believe my subconscious associates effeminate looks with 'being desirable', mostly because I find that myself attractive, if pulled off the right way. IRL I don't have the money for new clothes and I feel like my body is not really 'cute f**'-material. lol So I use my avi to express that aspect of my personality.

Additionaly I use my avi to show my affiliation with E-Corp and my loyalty to our great powerful lord, the Easter Bunny.
Also, I like staring at my pretty bunny man... emotion_awesome

I remember when I first joined Gaia, I picked the caramel skin tone & blonde hair so I would look like Su from Love Hina. Not that I particularly liked Love Hina.... but being super fair skinned, I've always fancied darker skin tones.

As far as what Ming wears... about 85% of the time I'm in some sort of zombie/bloody/Halloween-esque avatar because I freaking adore Halloween... and it's harder to keep the spark alive during the non-Halloween parts of the year. I made this neon avatar last night just to play with items I never use... and I'm already sick of it. :S

IRL, I have almost no sense of style. I secretly wish I was more fashionable, but I haven't gone shopping for myself in over a year... and I'm sure I still have some clothes from high school floating around - not that any of that stuff would still fit. When I'm not in "work clothes" I'm either in pajamas or jeans and a tee. Ming dresses a bajillion times fancier than me.

I aim to have purple in every outfit. Regardless of color scheme, I have to have it. I can't say I dress to impress, but I do try to avoid standing out.
While I'm sure I try to look cool and confident, I don't come across that way. I do at least try to look friendly enough. My avatar will never match my real appearance, as I dream of skin that doesn't burn so easily and hair that's tamable.

Hah, this is interesting. AND LET ME TELL YOU BOUT SNAP JUDGEMENT MAN.

I cross dress for social experiments for school, and it never fails to amaze me the differences being perceived as a blond chick or a blond dude.

Here on Gaia, I am very set in asserting a visual masculine side of me, one that I enjoy exploiting with the ease of pixels and not having to deal with chest binding.

For me, IRL, it's still not sure where I fall. I'm working into more professional attire, but I have conflict between presenting myself as more feminine or androgynous. I haven't really settled in "what is me" because I have no qualms about how I present on the gender spectrum, regardless of my biological gender. I mean, it's nice being able to look super femme, bat my eyelashes at the guys at gamestop and get the best used DS so I can play my pokemon games on them.

I'm also a nursing student and I have to say, when I dress real butch and tell people I'm in nursing school, it throws them in for a loop in this part of the country.

My avatars generally shift towards preferences and style moods. Sometimes even gender changes simply because I just like the outlook of another experiment going right. Race, form, even absolute makeup shifts and turns. I guess that would go more into the fact that I act differently from person to person, and even more differently in person than in a group setting (I'm much too used to group settings). Even my narrative style shifts between avatars. I myself, however, am much less interesting than my already dull and boring "Gaia Self", with no real concerning qualities save for occasionally spewing out decent writing once a blue moon.

As you can see, it's fairly boring and dull, since I dress for comfort more than appearances. That and being broke. That tends to damper heavily on things as well. Also, that's the closest Gaia has to my skintone and hair unfortunately. Olive gets no love.